On the point that Intel is a business whose primary goal is to make a profit, I quite agree with you. I don't feel the time is ripe for them, as you put it, because should they try anything right now then it gives AMD's legal case all the grounding they need to prove Intel is still abusing it's majority market share.

You may be right that the days of easy overclocking are at an end, but I don't think overclocking a Nehalem chip will be any harder than an AMD chip we already have.

Interestingly enough, here's some fresh news. Looks like the 2.66GHz Bloomfield will retail for around $284. Link

I am a bit more confident now that no one will lose the ability to really overclock, it's just a matter of how far the chips will be able to be pushed.

That is exactly what I am thinking... the chips will overclock great, but the QPI bus won't be able to overclock so well. If so then having the ability to change the CPU multi should really differentiate their Extreme chip... will have to wait and see I guess.

That is exactly what I am thinking... the chips will overclock great, but the QPI bus won't be able to overclock so well. If so then having the ability to change the CPU multi should really differentiate their Extreme chip... will have to wait and see I guess.

Aye... right now we can't do a single thing but wait. Though I was told we will learn a lot more at IDF, I'm not that confident that non-Extreme chips will be there. After all, those are always the first to launch. Just a waiting game here-on out...

... unless of course some Chinese site happens to stumble on an extremely early sample, like they always seem to do.

Plenty of samples have been floating around... already been some random threads on the XS forums with random benches to complement the array of news reports. I've honestly not followed the XS threads closely though, they keep running benches for whichever OS I'm not presently running. It gives new perspective when you can compare your own best 24/7 OC to the results

What is being reported (and I believe to be accurate, not disguised rumor) is that Intel will be launching their Bloomfield chips this fall... so that should mean all three of them. LGA1160 won't even be seen until Q2'09. Some sites report even a bit later, but I'm not falling for that one.

What is interesting is the QPI bus looks to be "Quad Pumped", just like the FSB. I'm not sure if this is just because software aka CPUz hasn't adapted yet, but they always show the 133Mhz with an effective 533MHz speed. This was identical to P4 Northwoods... I get the funny feeling come Q2'09 we will be seeling 200MHz QPI links for a total of 800MHz, just like later editions of the Northwood P4s...